Not My Circus, Not My Clowns

With the sound of a great whoopee cushion going off and the sight of blood-red smoke pouring from the top of the Capitol building, the Republicans finally brought their circus to a close and elected a Speaker. Unfortunately, continuing the chaos might have been better for the country than the clown they put in charge of the Big Top. This guy is Gym Jordan without the hyper-aggressive, sleeves-up, frat-boy bluster

Mike Johnson, (R-Stone Age LA) was able to claim the mantel of Speaker of the House, which demonstrated to all who are watching, just what their priorities are.

1)      Appear loyal to TFG at all costs.

2)      Persecute Gays by overturning the right to Same Sex Marriage, and other human rights.

3)      Persecute women by passing a national abortion ban, without exceptions for rape, incest, or health of the mother… I mean “incubator.”

4)      Raise the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare, and scaling back benefits.

Is there really anything Republicans are for that isn’t abhorrent to anyone that’s not filthy rich, racist/White supremacist, or a religious zealot?

Republicans had a choice between someone sane who can get important items moved through the house but instead elected someone to take a flamethrower to the Constitution.

Don’t bother looking to Congress to take any action that will solve actual problems, fiscal, physical, or otherwise. I mean, look what this new guy is on record as stating:

Yes, that’s the solution to making Social Security solvent… forcing women to have more babies. I guarantee you if women did have more babies, they’d still find a way to cut or curtail the Social Security program. Republicans just don’t like it and never will… not until they can come up with a way to let their rich donors skim the system first, leaving the rest of us to fight over the scraps.

The easiest fix in the world would be to remove the income cap for Social Security taxes, which is currently $160,200. Once people make that much money in a year, they no longer have to pay into Social Security. Do you realize what a boost it would be if the richest of the rich continued to pay Social Security taxes on their millions and billions? We’d never have to worry about solvency again.

I have to pay Social Security taxes on every dime I make. There is no reason the rich shouldn’t do the same but for this sweetheart gift they had created for themselves.

Of course, we’d also have to legislate some kind of regulations that forbid the loopholes and moving of money around to avoid that would inevitably be used to game the system again. But those details can be ironed out later, once we’ve found enough legislators with the backbone to do what’s right rather than what they’re being paid to do by their donor overlords. Maybe they could demonstrate some faith in the system that their constituents would reward them for sticking up for their interests rather than selling out….

… …

…OK, I know, Fox “News,” Breitbart, the Federalist Society and the rest of the Right Wing Media militia would ensure that never happens. Do you think it’s bad for them when Republicans get called RINOS and traitors after admitting TFG lost the election? Wait until they try to buck the donor class.

There is literally no lie they won’t tell. I mean, look at bullshit from Coach Tuberville:

I don’t even know where to begin debunking this. It is completely untethered from reality. The most generous stretch I can fathom is he’s blaming Democrats for losing in 2016, because without TFG paving the way for Putin, he never steps foot in Ukraine, because he knows President Clinton and the Americans would send everything at their disposal to Ukraine to stop him.

With Gaza, we know TFG gave Israeli defense secrets to Putin. We know Putin in tight with Iran, who funds Hamas. So again, it’s the Democrats’ fault for not beating TFG and keeping him from giving away national secrets.  It makes perfect sense, as long as you’re in the Wingnut-O-Sphere.

And that also explains why it isn’t a big deal when a presidential candidate calls for less voting and more voter prevention:

Yes, he’s not even trying to get out the vote anymore, he’s trying to get his minions to browbeat and intimidate opponents and poll workers into handing him the presidency.

“You gotta be careful, you gotta get out there and watch those voters… You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting—we got plenty of votes,” says the 4-time indicted soon-to-be felon.

Where, exactly, are these votes he “has?” Where did he get them, The International House of Votes?

“I’d like 11,800 votes please. What flavor? Georgia Peach.”

I’m telling you, if these guys get back in, we can say goodbye to free elections, democracy, and our Constitution.

In coming posts, we’ll talk more about the noxious Project 2025 and its implications.

Still One Clown Short of a Circus

Man, what a clown show, this Speaker’s race. It was to my delight, last Friday, that Gym Jordan had to bow out of the race in delicious fashion.

Seems he gathered all the Republican House members down in the bowels of the Capitol Building and had them conduct a secret ballot. The question was whether he should continue to pursue the Speakership.

The results? There were 112 votes against him. Recall that he was losing 20-30 Republican votes on prior “official” ballots. But in secret, about half of the party wanted him out. HAH!

It’s just too bad that these “Nay” Sayers couldn’t find their spine in public. It would have been nice to see people standing up saying no to harassment and bullying tactics. But I guess that’s easy for me to say. I’m not the one getting death threats from his MAGA minions.

But regardless, we’ve at least dodged this bullet. Now there are nine more candidates, (Sorry, make that eight more) and I don’t see any better choices. It’s kind of like trying to decide whether you’d rather have gonorrhea or chlamydia.

It’s also quite rich that they’re blaming the Speakership logjam on the Democrats! Yes, their own internal squabbling is somehow the fault of their opponents. I suppose if there were no Democrats, they could just divide up the US Treasury amongst their rich donors, fold up shop, and call it a day.

But seriously, they think the Dems should have voted for one of their reprehensible Representatives just to keep things moving. In the dead-wrong direction, but moving nevertheless.

And this coming from people who wouldn’t lift a finger if the shoe was on the other foot. If Democrats were on fire, they wouldn’t piss on them to put it out. They truly have no self-awareness, just an innate urge to blame Democrats for whatever they perceive to be wrong at any given time. Neither the topic nor the principle matter, it’s always the Democrats’ fault. They might as well put it on their campaign bumper stickers.

Update #2: Looks like the Republicans have their Speaker, a true MAGAt who supports a national no-exception abortion ban, ending same-sex marriages, overturning the 2020 election, with much more to come, I'm sure. It's gonna be a bumpy year. Let's see if the Democrats can make some hay out of this.

***

Now on to something completely pointless, yet (I hope) entertaining.

My mom has been steadily going through her things, now that she’s moved in with my sister, following my Dad’s passing. Last week, she wanted to show me something, a birthday card I sent her in, I’d say, the early 2010s. (I should have put a date on it.)

When getting cards for someone, I usually look for something I can have fun with by tarting it up with side points and banter. Well, this one, I’d completely forgotten about until she showed it to me.

It was a birthday card written in Spanish. Once I saw it, I remembered standing at the card rack thinking I could make something out of it, like providing a faux translation.

I have, in fact, taken four years of high school and college Spanish, so I could probably get pretty close with a legit translation, but where’s the fun in that?

So, this is what she received: (Click to embiggen.)

It’s a wonder she still speaks to me.

This was on the back:

And now, a word from my brother’s cat:

Finding New Speakers

We still don’t have a Speaker of the House, which is a mixed blessing. Given the majority makeup of The House, at least they can’t do any more damage or hold necessary legislation hostage.

Steve Scalise was the initial candidate put forth by the Republicans, but after two days of “negotiating,” he learned that he had no shot at 217 votes, so he dropped out. I heard some withheld support because he’s fighting a blood cancer diagnosis. It’s apparently treatable, but the GOP treats their own people just as disgustingly as they do their opponents.

That left Gym Jordan to pick up the mantel. Sigh… Gym freakin’ Jordan. As I mentioned last week, I just can’t stand the guy. He inherits the same problem Scalise had; a portion of his party that wants no part of him. And with the slimness of their majority in The House, a portion of any size is one they can’t omit.

So in keeping with his character, Jordan and his allies in Congress and on Fox “News” began a campaign of browbeating and threatening fellow Republicans who are withholding their votes from him. Jordan is one of those guys, as the saying goes, whose only weapon is a hammer, so he sees every obstacle as a nail.

Luckily, there seem to be people who don’t play that shit, so who knows what’s going to happen to his Speakership opportunity.

Maybe, and that’s with a big M, some moderate Republicans can work something out with the Democrats and install some kind of sanity to House leadership. It’s such a low bar when you’re really just looking for someone who isn’t batshit crazy. I’m not sure if there are many out there, who are impervious to the MAGA forces.

Republicans and Democrats are so far apart on basic issues right now, that I don’t see how they’re going to find common ground on anything. But I’m glad they’re trying because I am NOT looking forward to another year of clown shoes investigations and circus acts. Anybody would be better than Jordan.

***

I probably ought to say something about the Israel/Hamas situation. But I really don’t want to. Other people are far more astute regarding the history and the details than I am. I don’t claim to know any more than any other schlub sitting at the bar.

Things are bad and they’re about to get much worse. I hope Israel’s ground invasion can obliterate Hamas forces and free any hostages left alive, but I also hope they do so with minimal damage to civilian lives. I do realize that’s basically impossible… Hamas embeds themselves among civilians as a deterrent to such retaliation.

But when you take on one of the most militarily capable countries on the planet, blow a hole in their border wall, rape, kill, torture, and kidnap their civilians, there will be repercussions. They’re not just going to let that go. A world of hurt is about to rain on some truly evil people, as well as people whose primary concern is to put food on the table. They probably should have thought some more about it before voting to put monsters in charge of their region.

So… I hope it’s over soon. I’m not counting on it, but I hope nevertheless.

That’s all I’ve got, M'kay.

I See Naked People

I’m not finding a lot of current events this week to which I think I can add anything of value. The big bomb last week was the ousting of Speaker McCarthy and the subsequent clown show that has followed ever since. It seems that Matt Gaetz, the catalyst for the big move, had no idea what was to come next after achieving his goal of unspeakering the Speaker. As several have pointed out (before I could get to it), it looked a lot like this:

For the next Speaker, TFG has put his considerable weight behind Gym Jordan, a loathsome individual who’s best known for ignoring reports of molestation from the college wrestlers under his tutelage and for being the House’s greatest suck-up to the deposed president. The guy just rubs me the wrong way… he reminds me of the prototypical back-slapping frat boy, the kind that proclaims himself an “alpha male,” because merely acting like a giant douche all the time isn’t getting him enough attention. He is the walking personification of bluster over substance.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that… so how to fill up the rest of the day’s post?

I used to write a good bit about TV and broadcasting, but it’s been a while.

I’m still a cable guy… I don’t like all the streaming business. My cable package has more than enough content and channels to keep me occupied. There’s always something on I can watch. Although it has been a bit more challenging throughout the writers and actors strikes. But it did afford me the opportunity to try out some shows I’d heard about but never had the chance to actually watch.

I’ve never been a huge “reality” TV fan. I’m mostly a fan of the Big Three of network broadcast: Survivor, Big Brother, and Amazing Race, pretty much since they started. Then a few months back, I recorded a few episodes of Naked and Afraid, just to see what it was all about. I had read before that they pixilated all the naughty bits, so I kinda wondered what the point was. I mean, if you’re gonna go on TV naked, be naked! Put the show on HBO and do it up!

So yes, they do pixilate boobs and crotches. Butts seem to be OK, as long as no one is bending over. They still blur out the old red-eye and shots of the old under-carriage.

The show features participants with all kinds of body types. Some dudes are buff and some women are smokin’ hot. Other times they have big barrel-shaped dudes with their droopy little asses and women who look like they’re one Whitman’s Sampler away from a massive heart attack. Or they have so little meat on their bodies you wonder how they’ll ever be able to survive the cold overnight.

The idea is that they send a man and a woman out into a wilderness of some kind, African savannah, Amazon rain forest, Florida Everglades, deserted islands, and so on. Aside from not having clothes, they get to choose one item to take, usually a machete/axe/big-ass knife, a fire starter (flint device), rope, or netting. Sometimes the show gives them a metal pot, to boil and purify water. And that’s it.

Unlike Survivor, in the standard show, there are no challenges or rewards… it’s just, “Gimme your clothes, here’s your items, see you in 21 days. Go survive.”

They also get a burlap bag with a strap, so it can be worn over the shoulder. They use it not only to carry their meager supplies, but for transporting small food items that the forage or catch. The bag is usually good cover for their privates too. I think that was a production decision, so that they can save on their pixilation budget.

After watching a few episodes, the naked part of it kind of falls away. You just get used to it and begin to identify with just how vulnerable these people are and how little they have to protect themselves from insects, animals, and the elements.

In most cases, the participants are survivalists in one way or another. And by “survivalists,” I don’t mean wingnuts who hoard canned goods, firearms and ammo in their bomb shelters. I mean people who have learned how to live directly off the land, without even 18^th century conveniences. There are a lot of ex-military and law enforcement, but also endurance athletes, hunters, extreme campers, and nature lovers... people who know how to build shelters, build fire from scratch, forage for food among native flora.

The terrain is unforgiving. The bugs alone would send me running for the rescue truck on Day One. Sometimes people get bit up so bad it looks like the world’s worst case of measles. Nights get surprisingly cold, even in desert locations. 40-50 degree temperature swings are common, leaving even married people with little choice but to snuggle up with their partners for warmth.

On the other hand, the production plays up the animal dangers a great deal. I know there are big, scary, dangerous critters out there, but they keep rolling what looks like stock footage, to keep the images in front of the viewers’ eyes. It’s like”

“What was that sound? Was it a lion?”

Cut to a shot of a lion strolling by… it could have been from that day, or a week ago. You rarely see the participant and the beast in the same shot. So I know they take some liberties. But that’s not to say the danger isn’t out there. The participants find big cat or bear tracks outside their shelters all the time.

I don't underestimate the sound of a big animal close by. I was at a zoo once and heard a lion roar. Even from about 50 feet away, the sound reverberated in my bones. I had never felt so insignificant in my life, so I can only imagine the effect on someone that doesn't have iron bars between themselves and something that could swat the mouth off their face.

So, the participants are dropped off, they get naked, then go to a pre-arranged spot to meet their partner. That’s always awkward, but entertainingly so. They use a map to navigate through various perils to find a place near water, to make camp.

In Africa, they make something that’s called a “boma.” That’s where they find a clearing near some trees, and pile up thorn bushes (with which Africa seems to be covered) in a circle, for protection against all but the most determined predators. Inside the circle, they can make any number of different kinds of shelters, depending on their expertise.

Other locations use platforms to get up off the jungle ground, away from bugs and snakes. Sometimes they do a lean-to, other times they practically build a small house, with four walls and a roof. You definitely need a roof because it always seems to pour down rain at night.

Then they have to make fire, for night protection and to purify the local water. Sometimes, when the fire is not forthcoming and someone is wracked with thirst, they drink straight from a stream. In most cases, they later become ill, often having to be pulled from the game.

It’s funny with some of the people coming in who say they’re experts with making fire from scratch, so they don’t bring a Firestarter. Making fire with a made-in-the-wilderness “bow drill” always turns out to be a much greater ordeal than they expect, especially in humid places like rain forests.

This is a bow drill, which many participants use to make fire. You pull the bow back and forth to spin the rod, whose friction with the base will make an ember (maybe), which you take and put in a nest of wispy kindling. By blowing on the ember, you hope to catch the rest of the kindling and then build up into a sustainable fire.

So many people start the show by talking about how they’re going to dominate and thrive. These are usually the people who tap out and quit in the first week. Mother Nature is a great humbler.

After shelter and fire/water, they eventually turn to finding food. That’s where the characteristics of the terrain come into play. Sometimes there’s plenty of game to hunt, or fish to catch, sometimes not. Sometimes the forest is rife with coconuts and fruit, sometimes not. Even the most experienced hunters often come up empty, because they don’t have their gun or bow and arrow. People who know how to make snares or deadfall traps sometimes can come up with some critters like rats, groundhogs, or other small game.

And that’s it… they try to keep their fire going, stay hydrated and out of the elements, and find food where they can, for 21 days. The last day entails a long hike to their extraction site, which is completely draining, because they are often at their weakest point.

The interpersonal relationships are always interesting because they show likes to cast for conflict, like putting the avid hunter with the tree hugging hippy, or the Southern chauvinist who thinks the man needs to lead, with an ex-military woman, who’s used to giving her own orders.

As far as the “battle of the sexes” goes, men and women seem to tap out with the same frequency. And like I said, it always seems to be the self-proclaimed badass who taps out early, leaving his female partner to fend for herself for the rest of the time. (Which she often does.) But I prefer to see the two participants successfully work together. You have to figure, once you go through an experience like this with someone, you’ve got a friend for life.

I sit in amazement at what I see some of these folks do and how much they know. I can’t believe anyone would sign up to go through such a trial by fire (and rain). So while I think I’m learning a lot about how to survive in the wild, there is zero chance I would ever try such a thing myself. My version of surviving in the wild is staying at a 2-star hotel. I’ll take the bedbugs and a lousy bar over the spiders, snakes, mosquitos and sand flies.

Other iterations of the show feature veterans coming back in groups to engage in longer stays, for 40 or 60 days. When they stay that long, they are often given bows and arrows, especially in Africa, which is pretty much of a necessity. In other locales, they can be given fish hooks or giant hooks to catch gators or caiman.

I’m not one for hunting, ever, but I do understand situations where you either kill, or you don’t eat.

But some of these people are truly amazing at what they do, with deep knowledge of their environment and how to do just about anything. I even saw one woman take the fat out of an alligator they killed, and make soap with it. And that fits with the vibe, because any time something is killed, the participants use almost everything. The meat they can’t eat right away gets smoked and dried into jerky, the pelts get used for clothing, or cut up into shoes, for protection against thorns and jagged rocks. The inventiveness fascinates me.

Naked and Afraid runs on the Discovery channel on Sundays, usually in an all-day marathon. Sometimes they also run on Animal Planet.

In Summary

It was nice to see sanity reign for once with one of these TFG trials when last week the court in New York found him guilty via summary judgment. (Meaning based on the initial facts presented, without going through a trial.)

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. For these types of crimes, it’s black and white. Either he did inflate his real estate valuations for loans and deflate the same properties for taxes, or he didn’t.

Since the case was already this far, you know the prosecution has their ducks in a row or they wouldn’t have brought charges against such a high-profile target. We already know that they have all the documents, from previous subpoenas on his company and offices. You know what they say about shooting at the king.

I’m thinking it was like, “Here’s the paperwork where Trump Tower was valued at two bajillion dollars. There’s the defendant’s signature. Now here on that year’s tax forms, the valuation is half a bajillion. There’s his signature again. Case closed.”

I mean, how does the defense even argue against that? They have the signed documents, there is zero wiggle room. I supposed “diminished capacity” could be an argument, but I doubt the defendant would let that be made public. The defense did offer up some lame arguments and the judge was so offended, that he bounced them out immediately as nonsense and is adding court costs to the defendant’s tab, just for wasting his time.

Of course, TFG and his disciples are sure to rail against being deprived of a trial that was sure to exonerate him and this is further proof that the system is rigged. (Against rich White guys? That IS rich.) He knows that his only chance is to seat a jury that has some MAGAs on it, who will vote to acquit no matter how high the evidence is stacked.

But in this country, the evidence is supposed to lead the way to a conviction and that’s what happened here. To not see the obvious trail of evidence is to deny reality and live in an alternate dimension, which is unfortunately true of the MAGA cult.

The documents case in Florida would also be ripe for summary judgment because they’re just as cut and dried as the fraud case.

Q: Are these docs considered confidential or top secret?

A: Yes.

Q: Are they on a Trump property?

A: Yes.

Q: Was the defendant asked to return them?

A: Yes.

Q: Did he?

A: No.

Guilty. End of story.

Unfortunately, the judge in this matter, the Trump plant Judge Cannon, will do everything in her power to keep this case from coming to a guilty verdict, via delaying, diversions, time-consuming side issues, and the like. She can keep the prosecutors running in circles for a good long time before they can get to anything of consequence. And then as a last resort, she can make rulings that will be sure to get appealed, which also eats up the clock.

***

I’m glad that Congress, such as it is, was able to avoid a shutdown this weekend, but once again, they didn’t really solve anything, they just kicked the problem further down the calendar. Speaker McCarthy is truly between a rock and a hard place. His party is split enough that he needs the wingnut faction to do anything, and they won’t unless they get concessions that have zero chance in the Senate or in the Oval Office. So when he absolutely needs something done, he’s forced to work with the Democrats, which only enrages the wingnuts all the more.

Rep. Gaetz is already calling for a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker. This puts the Speaker in another bind. In order to keep his job, assuming the wingnut brigade is united, he’ll need help from the Democrats to keep his job, and they won’t do it for nothing, I’m sure. And that would completely change the atmosphere in the House, with a Republican Speaker in alliance with the Democratic minority. Strange bedfellows indeed.

I’ve also heard that McCarthy is considering ousting Rep. Gaetz from his seat. That would be rich, indeed.  I guess that’s what it takes for Republicans to crack down on their own people… when they threaten other Republicans. They’re still not doing anything about Rep. Santos, the poster boy for Pinocchio. In fact:

Maybe McCarthy shouldn’t have taken that particular swing, with his own obvious skeletons hanging out of his closet. Not that he should be piping up on Senate business in the first place.

Clean your own House, Mr. Speaker!

Corruption Eruption

Looks like we’ve got a whole new scandal to chew on, and Republicans are overjoyed that for once, it’s not one of theirs.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is on the hot seat for bribery and influence peddling charges and from the snippets of evidence made public, it looks like he’s in deep doo-doo.

Apparently, the prosecutors have him nailed with envelopes stuffed with cash left in his suit jackets, which sounds like something right out of the Sopranos, bars of gold, text messages showing him working on behalf of Egypt, and much more. You’d think he was preparing for a new world economy following the next Apocalypse.

As usual, the accused is claiming the prosecution has it all wrong. “Ooopsie!”

I maintain that a case like this never hits the news unless it’s nailed down tight. Even the Dems realize this guy’s goose is cooked; unlike the Republicans do, no one is rushing to his defense. That’s the thing with Democrats, when one of ours gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he’s out of the club. Gone! And I’m fine with that.

I do make room for the fact that in New Jersey, the (currently Democratic) governor gets to name a replacement, so there will be no risk of losing a Senate seat to the opposition. If that were not so, I think we might have seen a different response. Which I would understand.

Republicans do not screw around when servicing their power. It doesn’t matter what one of their guys does, if it puts a seat at risk, they rally around him. Or at least refuse to take any action. See Santos, George, aka The Tommy Flanagan of Congress.”

“Yeah, that’s the ticket!”

And I’m sick and tired of our guys taking the honorable approach and then losing seats.

The most egregious examples were the two impeachments. The Dems built a wall of evidence, brick by brick, which formed an undeniable link to high crimes and misdemeanors. I watched a great deal of the proceedings… they had TFG down cold. There was no other possible conclusion.

But what did the Republicans do? They closed their eyes, maintained that they saw nothing, and voted to acquit. Because to them, there is never an up-side to giving up a seat, a policy, a talking point, or anything, ever.

In politics, there are no style points for coming in second. Republicans play zero-sum, smash-mouth politics. If Dems don’t do the same, they have no hope of containing the Fascist threat.

Like this Fascist threat right here:

Just in case anyone thought TFG was kidding when he said he wanted to start locking up his enemies, he made it clear this weekend that he was dead serious about ending our Republic as we know it.

Now he’s adding unfriendly media outlets, (meaning anyone that’s not in the bag for him), especially NBC and affiliates. He wants investigations, sentences, and executions of his perceived enemies. (Note that “trials” are not included.)

The scary part is that if by some abomination, he gets elected again, I believe he can do it. Last time, there were “adults in the room” with him, to keep him from carrying out his most destructive wishes. He won’t make that mistake again and will surround himself with Yes Men and Hit Men, ready to carry out his most unhinged instructions, despite piddly concerns like “laws” and “the Constitution.”

And with so many Federalist Society appointees on the bench, especially the Big Six on the Supreme Court, I don’t see where there’s anyone to stop him.

And it goes without saying that once he’s in, he’s not leaving until they carry him out on his shield. Or in a giant McDonalds bag. He will find a way to effectively eliminate elections and Republicans will line up right behind him. And needless to say, (but I will anyway), if the Dems ever tried the same thing, Republicans would be calling for not only the National Guard to step in, but the Russians as well. After all, it can’t be an atrocity if it’s in their favor.

***

There’s still no end in sight to the UAW strike, but did anyone think this was going to end quickly? Nah, it’s got all the hallmarks of a long haul… Overly idealistic demands vs. entrenched business practices that will never, ever, end.

The line has been that the UAW is asking for a 46% increase because that’s how much top executives have had their pay increased over the last couple of years. (Way to use that bailout money, guys!)

One thing I haven’t seen anyone discuss, or even float, is a proposition that rather than bring worker pay up by 46%, they have they claw back some of the dough from the execs, rendering their increase to something like 25%. Then they can meet the philosophical demands of the UAW with a raise that’s the same as management.

It could work. But of course, it will never happen. There is zero percent chance that any of these boardroom types parts with a single dollar they’ve earned stolen. Not only is it just not done, it would establish a dangerous precedent for the 1%. Givebacks are for the rank and file, when times are tough, not the execs. The last thing they want is for any other industry to follow suit.

***

Not that I follow the activities of today’s young pop stars, but I’ve been entertained by the coverage of American Goddess Taylor Swift being linked to a famous football player, Travis Kelce of the KC Chiefs.

She attended his game yesterday and watched it from one of the team suites. (What, you think she’s gonna be out there in the stands, with the rest of the riffraff? She’s no Joan Jett… who totally sits out with the fans when she sees an Orioles game. That’s where I first met her.)

Anyway, she was all over the game coverage, with the press frequently asking the players about it during the post-game presser.

While, like I said, I’m not in the habit of following the movements of pop stars, you can’t help but pick things up just by being aware of the culture. Stories about her frequently show up in my Yahoo news feed, she’s on TV all the time, with interviews, news stories, and whatnot.

My opinion regarding Ms. Swift is that She may be one of the most beautiful women ever created. She’s practically perfect. And I have a great deal of respect for how she’s conducted her own career. She makes sound business judgments, writes her own songs, and plays her own instruments, which is an unfortunate rarity, here in the days of pop idols who are all image over substance.

I’ve never read anything about her being a shit-heel, not even from her legendary exes. I’ve never heard one say, “Oh geez, I’m so glad to get away from that raving harpie! What a pill!” Even after she writes a song about them, I’ve never seen them respond with anything of substance. (Granted, I’m not exactly looking, either.)

All her friends seem to stay for life, or if they do leave her orbit, they keep their yaps shut. No one’s writing any tell-alls about what it’s like to be in her posse.

Yet stories of her kindness and consideration to fans abound. And hey, she pushes voting for Democrats, from her home in Tennessee, which takes some guts.

But her songs? Meh. Totally not my style. When she comes out blazing guitars like AC/DC, I’ll get interested. Speaking as a crusty old White guy, shiny, over-processed, pop music is not for me.

So the thing I noticed about the prospect of dating this football player is that this seems to be the first time she’s going against type. She usually dates these pretty-boy pop singers or actors. I haven’t seen her with a big alpha male yet. This Kelce, he plays the tight end position, and these guys are huge, by definition. (He is 6’6”, 260 lbs.) He spends his days in physical battles with other huge dudes. This guy can make her feel protected, like when she’s followed and harassed by the paparazzi idiots. He seems to be a nice guy, like a better-looking “Gronk,” but I admit that all I have to go on is his media presence. He could be an asshole, so who knows?

So, we’ll see how this works out. Maybe it’s a nice change of pace, or maybe it’s something she didn’t know she needed. Either way, she should at least get a new song out of it.

Drugs, Pugs, Jugs, and Thugs

I’ve been out of the loop a bit for the past couple of weeks, (busy kicking COVID’s ass), so I’ve got some catching up to do on the matters of rivers and streams… in other words, current events.

That was some good news about Biden’s drug negotiations with Medicare kicking in, wasn’t it? Well, unless you’re among 99.9% of the country that’s not an executive with a Big Pharma company. They don’t like this at all because, well, they can’t tell you. But they mean “profits.”

From my friends at Crooks & Liars:

They should look up the meaning of “short term,” huh? Also, I’d like for someone to tell me how “what is best for patients” to pay several hundreds of dollars a month for maintenance drugs when the rest of the world pays a pittance? I’m sure a flak at PhRMA would tell you it’s so they continue to innovate and come up with new drugs, but I call bullshit. Do you really think they’re going to stop inventing drugs (and the syndromes their drugs are supposed to treat), fold up shop, and go home? Of course they’re going to continue to come up with more ways to leach us dry, just like they do every other time a new drug becomes eligible to go generic. As long as we have a for-profit medical system, drug companies will continue to invent ailments and the treatments to fix them.

I was happy to see Xarelto on the list, because that’s a blood thinner I should be taking (per one of my heart doctors), but costs over $300 for a month’s supply. I can almost see it, as a one-shot deal, but blood thinners are often maintenance drugs one has to take over a lifetime, especially after dealing with strokes or heart issues like atrial fibrillation. So any help in that arena should be applauded.

The fact that during the GWB administration, the Republicans actually supported and passed a rule forbidding Medicare to even negotiate on drug prices goes to show you how deeply they are in the pockets of Big Pharma. And they continue to fight about it today!

This is yet another block in the wall of evidence showing why the Republican Party is not on your side.

***

Moving on…

I’d call Mitch unfit for office too, but there are dozens of reasons more pressing than his freezing up again. The less he says, the better off the country, as far as I’m concerned. But of course, MT Greene had to insert herself into the mix because she couldn’t bear the spotlight not being on her for 15 seconds. Maybe Mitch ought to remind her of the famous quote, “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” That’s one she could take to heart, if she had one.

And speaking of this half of the performance art group “Heckle and Dyed,” didn’t Lauren Boebert get herself into some shit this weekend? It cracked me up because it went through the usual alibi cycle: “No, I did NOT do that. People say they saw me do it? Nah, they’re just liberal snowflakes. I absolutely didn’t do it. You have video of me doing it? All right, I did it, but it’s OK because I’m allowed. Don’t you know who I am?”

I saw the video and it quite clearly shows her A) vaping, and B) getting herself felt up like she was re-enacting in “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights.” The video had everything but an old car horn sound effect going “AHH-OOOOH-GA!” I didn’t see her grabbing any peen, but that area was a little darker than the rest and I couldn’t really tell. The dude had a smile on his face though, so probably.

The thing is, I don’t really care about any of that. It just shows she’s crass, entitled, and a liar, but that’s not something that wasn’t apparent before. Yes, she’s a terrible Representative, but that’s based on her stated beliefs, and, well, I was going to say “actions,” but she hasn’t really taken any that’s had an effect.

The ire-raising part of all this to me is that she’s one of the cultural warriors of the Right, putting forth all these rules that her opponents need to follow or be castigated, and she and her cabal of “friends,” do not.

The best response I’ve seen so far is this:

As I recall, AOC was smeared after a video surfaced of her dancing on a rooftop, before she was elected. Just… dancing, like that’s some kind of problem. Has the GOP turned into the townspeople from Footloose? I guess we have to send Kevin Bacon in there to lay some applicable Bible verses on them. I don’t think there’s anything in there about going to second base in a crowded theater though…

***

Here’s another reminder that we cannot let TFG, nor any of his MAGAts, be elected President, or we’re looking at the end of the Republic. This is the kind of “king” shit that our forefathers expressly wrote out of our Constitution.

TFG wants you to believe he was just going along, minding his own business, all legal-like, when the big bad Democrats decided to go after him. So he has every right to jail his opposition and replace anyone in the entire government who doesn’t pledge allegiance to him.

The fact that there are mountains of evidence that guided every decision to prosecute is beside the point. And that point is that he thinks he has every right to do whatever he wants because he’s White and he (allegedly) has money.

Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t. Or at least he shouldn’t. We still don’t know the level at which he’s stacked the deck.

***

Congratulations to the Baltimore Orioles, for clinching a playoff berth! I was there in 2014 when they clinched a spot, and it was really exciting. At least at first… I ended up having to leave the park in distress… abdominal distress, so much so that I almost left a trail around the stadium concourse. And then, a month later, at an AL Championship game, it happened again. This time, it took on a Sci-Fi feel.

I only mention the Orioles here because recently, when I was watching a game, I came across a guy with a really unfortunate name.

Yes, the White Sox have a pitcher whose name is Bummer. And it sounds just like you’d think. In a post from last summer, I mentioned that the Orioles have a guy named “Santander,” but rather than pronouncing it “San-TAN-der,” it’s pronounced “Sahn-tahn-DARE.” If this Bummer guy wasn’t able to change his name, (he may have come from a long line of Bummers,) he could at least play with the pronunciation. Like, “No really, my name is pronounced, “Boo-MAIR.”

And it wouldn’t even take any paperwork unless he went whole hog and put an umlaut over the U.

And one last note on fandom…

I hate it when my team plays on Monday night. I guess I made myself forget about it this weekend because I was sitting there on Sunday, all dressed for the game in my best mojo-producing gear… game jersey, team shorts, team socks, and a T-shirt that said “Cleveland Never Rocked.” And then came the realization that they weren’t playing until the next night, so I had to get up and change again. No sense wasting good mojo when your team isn’t even playing.

And last week, my guys got their butts kicked soundly, but I was able to find a bright side. Earlier that morning, I forgot to snap down the clipper guard over the blades of my beard trimmer and accidentally took a notch out of my beard, just below the ear.

The good news is that if my team had won that day, I’d then be obligated to keep taking notches out every week until they lost (and I couldn’t blame it on the jersey I was wearing.) I take my team mojo obligations seriously.

The 'Rona Comes Home

I wasn’t too worried about the tickle in my throat Friday night (9/1). That usually meant I was early for my annual cold, I already had one in May. I get the same cold every year, or at least I did up until the ‘Rona, and I began working from home. I’ve hardly been sick since 2019. My usual cold starts in the throat, migrates to my sinuses, I get tired and lethargic, and it eventually lands in my chest, until I can hack it all out. The whole process usually takes a couple of weeks.

Sweetpea said she had a headache behind her eyes earlier in the week, but I didn’t think much of that.

When I woke up Saturday morning, it was a whole different ballgame. I felt like about nine bags of fuck. I had a sore throat like I was trying to swallow ground glass, aches all up and down my body, especially around my back, chest congestion, and a splitting headache. And the problem with that was that every time I had to cough, (which was often, as I tried to clear my chest and airway,) it felt like the top of my head was going burst open.

This was no gradual thing, more like,

Friday night: “Sweet dreams, don’t let the begbugs bite…”

Saturday morning: “Yaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Welcome to Your Highway to Hell!”

At that point, I consulted a chart I had from 2020 at the onset of COVID. It looked to me like my symptoms lined up more with the flu than the ‘Rona, where I had 7 of the top 8 symptoms. (I did not have the trots.)

Also, I could still taste my food and drink, which I considered the telltale sign that it wasn’t COVID. So I just took some meds to fight the symptoms and waited for my immune system to kick in.

Sunday and Monday were even worse, with the headache intensifying. Nice long weekend, huh? I would get up around nine, have breakfast and do my crossword puzzles, then go back to bed about 11 and stay there for 2-3 hours. I was just beat. I ate a lot of soup, because that’s what I could swallow with the least amount of difficulty. I also lost 5 pounds, so if you want to jump start some weight loss, consider the Soup Diet.

By Tuesday, the headache let up and the body aches went away, and my throat was much less sore. I still had chest and sinus congestion, was easy to tire out. And just when I could swallow comfortably again, I lost the sense of taste.

At that point, Sweetpea and I both took at-home COVID tests and we tested positive.

Dammit! I had avoided it all this time. It wasn’t hard for us to figure out that Sweetpea brought it back to the house from her week of teachers training meetings she had the prior week. (I literally had not left the house for the preceding week.) But her symptoms were much less severe than mine. She just had the headache, some fatigue, and also lost taste.

By Wednesday, my headache and sore throat were gone, I had less chest congestion, but a dry cough at night at times. And my sense of taste returned; Sweetpea’s came back a couple days later. But as such, I lost my opportunity to eat a year’s worth of broccoli and other vegetables I can’t stand, but are good for me. I guess I’ll have to wait until next time.

From Thursday on, I’ve just had mild but clingy chest and sinus congestion, but my energy has been much better. I don’t have any reason to think it won’t continue to fade away, but I’m keeping an eye on things.

It’s been about a year since my last COVID booster and flu shot, so I’ll be anxious to go get jabbed as soon as they release the new versions for fall. I’m grateful that the previous shots kept me out of the hospital.

Yes, my case could have been much worse, but man, I do NOT want to replay those first three days again for anything! That was a truly miserable experience.

Take it from me: get your shots and take distancing and masking seriously.

Station Break - We'll Be Right Back - Update 9/7

I'm sorry I don't have anything for you today,  my friend, but pestilence has visited the House of Bluz. I'm pretty sure I came down with a bad case of flu Friday night and I've felt like crap since Saturday morning. I'm pounding drugs, soup, and naps as best I can. Later this week I hope to be able to create another edition of the kind of bullshit to which you've become accustomed. 

Thursday Update: Sorry, it doesn't look like there will be a proper post this week. I found out on Tuesday that this is actually COVID. I'm feeling much better than I did over the weekend, but I'm still pretty lethargic and muddled. And I've been completely unplugged from the news, other than celebrating a couple of Proud Boyz getting hard time. 

Anyway, I plan to tell the full story in my next regular Monday post.

By Hook or By Crook

I mentioned in some prior posts that the Republicans are now completely comfortable with gaming the system to get what they want. They don’t try to change minds, they change rules. They rig systems right out in the open. They cheat and lie. And they accuse their opponents of doing the same but never seem to have any proof.

This is such a widely used tactic now, that it might as well be a plank in their party platform (if they ever actually create another one). Here are some current examples:

Setback: Losing the “Youth Vote.”

GOP Solution: Raise the voting age! Who cares what they think if they can’t vote? They can have any gun they want and be forced to have babies, but they’re not old enough to reasonably consider their vote.

Also, put the squeeze on by eliminating the Dept. of Education, cutting funding for schools and programs, keeping student loan interest rates high, purging faculties of suspected liberals, and replacing them with reliable conservative or religious mouthpieces.

Setback: Unpopularity of strict abortion laws, losing the “Woman” vote.

GOP Solution: Since The People keep voting for referenda that support the right to reproductive freedom (by either refusing to enact harsh limits or passing privacy guarantees), not only are Repubs refusing to propose abortion-limiting referenda, they’re trying to kneecap the process by attempting to enact higher thresholds for passage of any referendum, or raising the degree of difficulty in even proposing one. (See: Ohio.)

In another angle, because abortion has become such a wedge and they’re becoming much less successful at attacking abortion in the states, they’re now pushing for a national ban. That takes the states out of play completely and puts the matter in the hands of the 6 bought-and-paid-for, anti-abortion Supreme Court justices. All they need is a way to weasel it past Democratic rivals in the legislative and executive branches, through either elections or horse trading.

Late Update: Now the Ohio Secretary of State has rewritten the language for what is to appear on the referendum ballot to add loaded terms like “unborn baby” in place of “fetus” or “embryo.” He also eliminated language describing the other ramifications of the referendum, covering contraception, miscarriages, and fertility treatment. See? They never stop trying to erect barriers to The People’s Voice, when it differs from their party goals. Deter them on one front and they just open another.

Setback: Their Orange Idol is being prosecuted by the state of Georgia, with irrefutable evidence already public, where the possibility of a pardon is non-existent.

GOP Solution: Pass a law allowing them to fire the prosecutor. Is the prosecutor doing anything illegal or inappropriate? No, they just don’t like that “one of theirs” is being charged. Doesn’t matter what he did, fire the prosecutor.

And to keep the rage stoked, Rep Gym Jordan opened an investigation into the Georgia investigation. That they clearly have no jurisdiction over the matter is irrelevant. It’s all a dog and pony show to be peddled on Fox “News” and the like.

Setback: TFG’s presidential campaign is very much in danger, if not by the various indictments, but by prospective voters. He’s already lost the popular vote twice.

GOP Solution: Create an “independent” third party, to peel away votes from Biden. The No Labels “party” is a smokescreen created by wealthy Republican donors who can read the tea leaves and know TFG is toast. If they can’t push his bloated corpse to victory on his own, they can at least attack opposition voters by hyping a Democratic Trojan Horse. Guys like Manchin or Lieberman have no real chance of winning, but if they can steal enough votes in one or two tight swing state races, it may allow a devoted MAGA crowd to turn out and grab another Electoral College win.

Setback: Losing enough close elections in former blood-red states that they no longer have veto-proof majorities.

GOP Solution: Run a candidate as a Democrat who agrees to flip to Republican after winning the election. See: South Carolina.

Also, pass a law allowing the state legislature to overturn election results they don’t like, as they did in Texas. They set up the standard so that it only applies to one county, the largest one in the state, which “coincidentally” happens to include Houston and skews Democratic.

Democracy is meaningless when a legislature can just set aside any election result they don’t like.

***

Some other stuff:

I didn’t watch the first Republican debate because I’d rather ram a sharp stick in my eye than watch two hours of that blather. But I heard that Vivek Ramaswamy made a big splash. But I’m not worried about him for two reasons.

1.       Though he may be posturing to be named a VP candidate, TFG will never choose a running mate who’s as big of a spotlight hog as he is. See also: “MT Greene.”

2.       More importantly, no one named Vivek Ramaswamy will ever win the Republican nomination.

***

This cracked me up and pissed me off at the same time:

Excellent response… funny. But to me, much like Junior, he misses the point.

“Violated his due process???”

Due process is precisely what’s going on. You have an investigation, testimony, evidence, indictments, charges, and a trial. That’s due process and he’s getting all of it, right up the old wazoo. The part Junior is looking for is probably the part where rich people pay other people to look the other way. That’s the kind of process this family is used to.

“Tainted the Grand Jury?” No one even knew who they were until after the fact. How the hell are they being “tainted.” If the jury was tainted, it was by an overwhelming pile of evidence. Junior wouldn’t recognize “taint” if it was right in front of his nose, which it probably was, considering where his head’s been for so long.